Does age really matter?

‘You are only as old as you feel’, goes a popular saying. Age shouldn’t be a signal to slow down or stop us from achieving our dreams. New beginnings are not just for the youth; the autumn years can be fulfilling when people pursue new hobbies or merely follow their passion.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are poster boys for teen ‘whizkids’; closer home too, several young techies have become millionaires but scripting their success stories even before they turn 30. When Hritik Roshan’s investment banker character in the popular film, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, proclaimed that he wanted to retire at 40, many over-worked young Indians gasped in agreement. But for every young millionaire on the block, there are several ‘late bloomers’, who scale the higher rungs of the professional ladder post 50 when others are waiting to retire in their rocking chairs.

As Maharashtra goes to the polls, ‘age’ has become a new talking point, jostling for space with words like ‘reservations’, ‘corruption’, ‘price’ and ‘development’ in public discourse. But does age really matter? Maybe it does when it comes to the experience accumulated over the decades. Grey hair, they say, is only a sign of the wisdom gathered. But age is certainly not a reason to put the brakes on one’s drive and desires.

In Maharashtra’s political landscape, Sharad Pawar, at 84 years, is one politician who defies the stereotypes of retiring at a certain socially-recommended age and handing the reins to the next generation. “On those banners, I was described as an old man of 84 years. But you do not worry, because be it 84 or be it 90, this old man will not stop. This old man will not rest until he brings the state on the right track,” the octogenarian declared last week.

His age suddenly crept into political chatter when, in 2023, when Ajit Pawar split his parent party, the Nationalist Congress Party, and took a jibe at his uncle, urging him to slow down and retire. “Most people normally stop their active professional life after turning 75. Some people retire at 60, 65 or 70. But this man does not retire even after turning 80…what is going on,” he had said at a public gathering earlier this year. The senior politician’s energy and drive at 84 baffles many.

The world over, formal employment comes with a retirement age. If it’s 58 years in India, Iceland and Norway have the highest retirement age at 67 years. It’s a good idea, assuming that a person’s physical energy and mental faculties may slow with age and ill health. There was a time when people would prepare a bucket list of hobbies to pursue, places to visit, friends to meet and books to read after 60. The emptiness of retirement needed to be filled. Certain Hindu customs accord great importance to the age of 60 years with the belief that the milestone marks an end to worldly material commitments and heralds the onset of one’s spiritual journey.

But the norm’s changing and is being turned on its head by passionate people who have the drive to excel, irrespective of age and health. The self-employed, entrepreneurs, actors, politicians, artists, and heads of corporate houses rarely follow an age-based retirement plan. People quit work to start their passion ventures long after their hair has greyed. There are numerous success stories of those who hit the jackpot late. Some global big names weren’t young success stories. Henry Ford was 45 years-old when he created the revolutionary Model T car in 1908; writer Harry Bernstein had authored countless rejected books before gaining fame at the age of 96 and KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders was 62 when he opened the first franchise of the multi-outlet fast food brand. Closer home, Falguni Nayar, founded her beauty e-commerce chain Nykaa at the age of 50. Acclaimed actor Boman Irani got his first big hit at the age of 44 and every few months, we read heartwarming stories of people studying for a degree or PhD at 80 or taking up a sport well after they enter the autumn of their life. Age has not taken the sheen off Amitabh Bachchan’s star power.